The picket lines are still active at SaskEnergy, SaskTel, SaskPower and some other Crowns as Unifor members have been on strike since Friday.
Over 4,000 employees continue to walk the streets on a $300-per-week strike pay while contract talks seem to be at a standstill between the sides.
The situation has already been difficult for many of the workers; some are wondering how long they can last on their minimal pay before they run into financial problems.
Ryan Andrews works for SaskTel under Unifor local 1S. He said all they want is fairness.
“We’re investing our money back into the province here, and it’s going to make it hard,” he said. “We’re going to have to start cutting costs into other things and try to make ends meet with what we have.”
Shan Noyes, an employee for SaskTel’s cyber security team, is on the picket line with his guide dog Kix. He thinks the issue is with the government telling the company what they can and cannot negotiate, which he feels is not right.
The province believes their offer of five per cent over five years is a fair deal.
Noyes also was a part of the 1996 strike which he remembers was difficult on him and his colleagues. Back then he didn’t know how long it would go. Now he’s not sure how long the current strike will last.
“Every week we’re off, we lose two per cent of our wages,” said Noyes. “I’m okay being out here for two to three weeks. If it goes beyond three weeks though – I don’t know.”
Both Noyes and network designer for SaskTel Haseeb Khan are confident the Crowns may start losing talented workers the longer people are on the picket line.
“We have a lot of good people here and they are already getting approached by other companies,” explained Khan. “If you’re getting job offers from other places, then why would you stay.”
With heating bills increasing soon as the thermometer begins to drop lower, and the holidays soon approaching, strikers hope a fair deal can be reached as soon as possible.
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